It has long been a desire to cast the straps, lugs, and/or posts of lead-acid storage battery groups or elements onto battery stacks. Unfortunately, for various reasons the methods and associated apparatus heretofore available to the art have been complex, quite expensive, and difficult to maintain under production conditions. Most prior art cast-on machines have been fully automated, and include elaborate mechanisms for vibrating battery stacks to align the plates and separators within those stacks, gripping those stacks, raising those stacks for indexing to subsequent stations such as lug brushing, fluxing, casting, and unloading stations. While such method have achieved some success, their extreme expense, difficulty of upkeep, and overall complexity have somewhat limited their application in the industry.
For some examples of prior art cast-on machines and methods, please refer to U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,229,339; 3,238,579; 3,200,450; 3,253,306; 3,294,258; and 3,415,220.